The Novoselic Conspiracy
by Klon
Summary: When a Future Foundation agent reveals he has information regarding the whereabouts of Makoto's parents, his sister travels to Novoselic, home of Sonia Nevermind. Unfortunately, Komaru never returns from the war-torn country. Makoto and Toko/Jack investigate her disappearance and get involved in a dangerous political plot.
1. Papa Où T'es?

A light from a miniature lap hanging from the side of a pair of glasses illuminated the piece of paper world‑renowned authoress and Killing Game Survivor Toko Fukawa was writing on with her trusted ball pen. The young woman was working on her newest story, a romantic narrative focusing on a pair of lovers surviving and somewhat thriving in a bunker after the end of the world. Her new publisher, a recently-founded literature company, had expressed their doubts about it being a good idea to set a story in a post‑apocalyptic scenario, given as the world Toko found herself living in barely had managed to find a way past its own post-apocalyptic scenario, a series of anarchistic terror strikes and military action that caused a temporary breakdown of society in the majority of the world: The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History.

Toko actually agreed with their concerns and would probably have changed the setting, had she not faith in the abilities that made her one of the best creative minds in all of Japan and earned her more literature awards than most people have pieces of clothing. She bitterly noted in her thoughts that it is about the only thing she can do properly. However, her train of thought was derailed when she turned her head and noted her best friend Komaru Naegi in her new red pajamas, also being illuminated by artificial lights. Toko was surprised by that. Normally, Komaru would be sleeping by now and be sleeping so deeply that the entire building could blow up and she wouldn't notice. Turning to her best friend, she looked at what she was doing, quickly noticing that she was looking at the notebook she and Toko shared, but mostly went unused except when Toko turned her written chapters into digital versions.

"What are you looking at?" Toko asked, shaking her hand to get rid of the pain that writing with a ball pen for a long time caused.

This inquiry clearly catched Komaru by surprise, as she turned around looking for the source of the noise until her brain had adjusted to the situation, staring at Toko as if she had forgotten the lavender-haired girl was even around. Staring with those eyes, whom Toko secretly and silently admired. It always baffled Toko that a family that otherwise was so blatantly close to the term 'average' like the Naegi family was could have such beautiful eyes. Her brother, Makoto Naegi, commonly known as the Ultimate Hope as well as the headmaster of the rebuilt Hope's Peak Academy, had similar eyes with a slightly different colour. Dismissing the thought, she waited for Komaru's response.

"Well … Makoto just forwarded me this message…," she tried to explain herself.

"I don't even want to know what you perverts send each other," Toko immediately interrupted her, shuddering at the mere implications messages between Komaru and her brother. Her theories on the subject were quite explicit, though both Naegi family members denied multiple times that they might be true.

"It's not like that, stop saying that all the time! Look, this is really important," Komaru explained, gesturing Toko to come closer. Sensing that there's little point in rejecting the idea, Toko crossed the room quickly, sitting down on the bed next to Komaru. The younger woman pointed to the message, preferring to let Toko, who happened to be a rather quick reader as part of her profession, just read through the message for herself.

" _HPHFHQ_

 _We have found information regarding Naegi's parents, but we cannot act on it ourselves._

 _Should you wish to investigate, we will help as much as possible._

 _For safety, I will only prepare entry documents for members of the Naegi family._

 _Inform me of any plans of action._

 _\- Agent Democracy"_

Toko immediately recognized the author of this message. Ladislav IX, the reigning king of the European country Novoselic, and unofficial member of the Future Foundation. He, under the purposefully‑ironic codename 'Democracy', is part of the organization that has declared the reversal of the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History as their core mission. However, such membership does not exist on paper. Just like Toko Fukawa and Komaru Naegi, he is part of a bureau that officially does not exist: the Future Foundation Special Operations branch – a branch consisting of eight talented people who cannot associate with Future Foundation publicly. This is either for their own protection or because associating with them would throw a bad light on the organization.

Ladislav IX clearly falls in the first category; even after he usurped the former queen Sonia Nevermind, who apparently had their parents assassinated, the propaganda program that denunciated anyone associated with Future Foundation and other forces fighting despair is running deep and therefore, the royal family would risk severe unrest in their war-torn country if a public alliance with Future Foundation is formed.

Now Toko, codename "Talk Show", is very much an example of the latter part. Even though it had been inactive for some while, Toko's split personality still is infamous: the vicious serial killer Genocide Jack. It's what prevented her entry into Future Foundation directly after taking down the Ultimate Despair, Junko Enoshima, despite all other survivors of the School Life of Mutual Killing earning that honor immediately, with the Ultimate Detective Kyoko Kirigiri even being given a leading position right off the bat. About the only thing that made this role acceptable was that Komaru insisted that she can join her best friend in the branch, even though her brother wanted a cushy publicity gig for his sister. After explicitly denying entry into Future Foundation unless it was in the Special Reconnaissance branch, she was given the codename "Betrayal". Toko and Makoto both agreed later that it was hilarious to watch her trying to learn how to pronunciation the English word, something that really took her a long time to do.

"Well, Kyoko and Byakuya both say that this message is a trap and Democracy is compromised somehow," Komaru explained, "but Makoto thinks I should know about it anyway. I just suggested to him that I go instead. I mean, I am "Naegi" after all."

"Are you insane?" she asked, clearly not withholding her displeasure at the idea.

"No! I mean, Yasuhiro even did a free line-reading for us and said we'd meet our parents soon," Komaru justified herself. Toko had to struggle hard to not slap either her own or Komaru's head in frustration. Yasuhiro Hagakure, a self‑proclaimed fortune teller, was a fellow survivor of the School Life of Mutual Killing. As far as Toko was concerned, however, he was little more than a con artist. The fact that a trusting person like Komaru was giving him time of the day is worrying enough; it seemed like she would need to talk a few words to him. Now she was planning something stupid based off his 'prediction'.

"So you will fly to Europe, put yourself at risk, just because that occult divination bastard said something stupid," Toko cynically summarized her point of view on Komaru's plan.

Komaru fiercely turns her head towards her best friend, who was taken aback by the determination in her eyes.

"Makoto and I miss our parents dearly. I know that you don't think about yours that way," she said, "but we loved each other. Unless I am certain that they are dead, I cannot accept that. I know this could be dangerous, but I need to try. For myself and my brother."

"O-okay, okay, I get it. Stop telling me about doing … stuff for your brother," Toko answered. Despite the joking jab, she had accepted her best friend's decision, as much as it displeased her. Her determined stare turned into a friendly smile and she placed a hand on Toko's shoulder, ignoring the shiver that goes through her body. Toko was still uncomfortable with human touch if not initiated by her, but she once told Komaru to not mind that and go ahead with touching her if she wanted to.

"I know you don't want me to go," she comforted her, "but I will be back soon. I promise. And once I am back, we will go that fancy tea house you wanted to visit."

Toko just gave a weak smile at her friend, still unhappy with her leaving soon, but knowing that there was nothing she really could do about it. She looked at Komaru typing and sending a message, before turning off the PC, leaving only a small light. Toko went to bed as well, but it would take her a long time to fall asleep. Little would she know that this was the beginning of an adventure that would change her life forever.

" _NSHF_

 _Please prepare everything for my journey._

 _My personal documents are attached as encrypted image files. As you know, these files will be automatically deleted after 12 hours._

 _Thank you for your effort._

 _\- Agent Betrayal"_


	2. You Cannot Find a Friend

Makoto Naegi, the man who had earned the title of Ultimate Hope, stormed up and down his office. The principal of the rebuilt Hope's Peak Academy was not concerned about the school, which ran amazingly and just graduated its first batch of graduates, the 79th class already having produced many graduates who have moved on to healing parts of the world where Future Foundation has not achieved their goals of restoring order and a healthy environment. Instead, Makoto's concern were caused by the fact that his sister has not been heard from in more than a few weeks and the reply to his messages by his contact, codename "Democracy", have been highly concerning.

He informed Hope Peak's Academy that, as far as he and the government of Novoselic were aware, Komaru Naegi never arrived in the country. Makoto knew that this was incorrect, since the pilot who flew her into the country reported that they had an eventless flight and the young woman was picked up by government officials as was planned. This means that either the pilot or the monarch of the Eastern European country is lying and has been somehow compromised, an idea Makoto was highly uncomfortable with, or that there are other factors in play.

"It's obvious that she isn't going to come back on her own," the young man sitting on one of the chairs calmly noted, before taking a sip of the coffee in front of him. Byakuya Togami was not a man to get rattled and show it. While Makoto knew he was grateful towards Komaru for helping to rescue him from his capture in Towa City and for keeping his stalker Toko Fukawa off his back, a man of his importance simply could not allow anyone's capture to rattle him.

"I am afraid you are right," the short young man responded, "but the question is what do we do about it? I don't plan on doing nothing. I didn't get her back from Towa City just to be separated for months or years again!"

"We cannot afford to take risks. She knew what she was getting herself into," the last remaining member of the Togami clan noted coldly. Suddenly, his eyes shifted to the wall and he put on a defensive body language. Makoto did not understand what caused this behavior, whilst Byakuya massaged his temple in frustration.

"Toko, I know you are listening, stop doing that!" he shouted loudly, catching Makoto off-guard even before he actually took in what was said and realised that Toko Fukawa was supposedly listening in on the conversation. As gifted as he was at deductive reasoning, his ability to pay attention to his surroundings lacked in comparison to the Ultimate Affluent Progeny. The door knob rattling reminded Makoto that he had locked the room. With quick step, he unlocked the door and let Toko in. He looked at her and saw a look that was partly shame at being caught and partly concern about what she had heard so far.

"Take a seat, Toko," Makoto offered kindly. Toko did not say anything and avoided eye contact, as she sat next to Byakuya, who himself averted his eyes from the young woman.

"Could you enlighten us to the reason you thought it was wise to spy on us?" Byakuya asked directly and condescendingly, causing Toko to yank upwards from her crouched seating position.

"M-master … I d-didn't mean to s-spy…," she weakly justified herself. A dismissive noise by Byakuya buried any further attempt at doing so. "Well, I-I just wanted to know w-what is taking Komaru so long," she explained with a tone that was supposed to hide how much she cared, but utterly failed in doing so. Makoto took comfort in the fact that he was not the only one concerned with the fate of possibly the last living relative he had.

"Have you heard enough? Or do you have any questions?" Byakuya asked fiercly, "Because otherwise you may take your leave." Makoto was considering to tell him to be a bit friendlier to her, but Toko answered before he could speak up.

"What do you plan to do about it?" the authoress inquired with a cutting tone that took both Byakuya and Makoto off guard for a second. She pretty much never was this direct when speaking to her 'master', prefering a tone of subservitude instead.

"We will not send any agents into this situation and Makoto over here is not heading there either, at least not if he's smart. First, we will try to find out whether King Ladislav is corrupted by despair or other forces against Future Foundation, unlikely as that is, then we will have Novoselic's law enforcement handle the issue," Byakuya explained, seemingly more interested in his coffee than the concerned people around him. Toko found herself highly displeased by the answer, her irritation increasing with every word her dream man said.

"T-that's it? We just sit here and wait for her to d-die," she angrily noted, "Fine, do that. I won't! Tell Agent Democracy to get me in there!"

"Toko, we really should stay here. This could be very dangerous," Makoto said, trying to make a calming gesture.

"Let her go," Byakuya countered, "If she wants to throw her worthless life away in an utterly pointless act of 'heroism', we shouldn't stop her. It was clear from the start that it's a trap and yet your sister still went out there."

Toko did not dignify that with a response. Instead, she threw the most vicious look she was capable of at Byakuya, who merely brushed it off. He was indifferent to the hate Toko was feeling for him right now, a hate that even exceeded the short-lived anger the authoress felt at him for revealing her dissociative personality disorder to the rest of the group, and therefore the entire TV-watching planet, during the murder case of Chihiro Fujisaki. Putting her head slightly downwards, she violently slammed her hand on the nearby wood of the table, causing everything not nailed to the desk to go flying, including Byakuya's coffee, which spilled all over the last living member of the Togami dynasty.

"Toko, calm down!" Makoto shouted, causing Toko to turn around to him and raise her head back up. What he saw shocked him: tears coming from Toko's brown eyes rolled down her face. He had talked to her on some occasions and even recalling the worst events of both of her life before Junko Enoshima's rise and fall and of their traumatic incidents in Towa City, she never even remotely looked like crying. He sometimes believed that she simply refused to cry because she didn't want to give anybody the satisfaction of seeing her being "broken".

"T-this is your fault," she shouted angrily, "T-t-this trap c-clearly was m-meant for you, you stray pig! You s-should be t-there! Y-You should b-be missing and Komaru should s-still be h-here!"

With these parting words, Toko stormed out of the room, leaving a conscience-stricken Makoto, who was beginning to think that Toko was completely right in what she just said, and an irritated Byakuya who had just finished wiping away the coffee that was spilled on his face. The latter just looked at the former with a look that made it clear to both of them that the progeny was aware of what Makoto was about to say.

"I've got to go to Novoselic," Makoto said, fulfilling Byakuya's expectations, "It's risky, but I will come back in one piece. I promise."

Not wanting to dignify that with a response, Byakuya merely emptied what was left in his cup, resigning himself to the fact that he was not going to change Makoto's mind on this. Giving Makoto a small nod, he departed the room, leaving the headmaster to his devices and with a lot to think about and prepare. Swiftly, he activated his PC and send out a quick message that was less friendly in tone than his messages to agents of the Special Reconnaissance branch usually are.

" _NSHF_

 _Prepare entry documents and everything else needed for me and Agent Talk Show. Copies of our personal documents are attached as encrypted image files. Following Future Foundation protocol, these files will be automatically deleted after 12 hours._

 _We expect either information on or the option to investigate the location of Agent Betrayal after our arrival freely._

 _Consider this an order. Non-compliance will result in removal from Special Reconnaissance branch._

 _\- Naegi"_

* * *

First off, let me thank you all for the interest you have shown in this fic. This is the first time I have published here since 2014 and my first true multi-chapter effort. I hope I will be able to make this a worthy read.


	3. There's No Way I'm Turning Back

The places that had suffered the most during the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History were international airports. As it would obviously severely limit the ability of countries to help each other deal with the situation if international flight stopped, a large number of strikes by the Ultimate Despair focused on airports. Kazuichi Soda, the former Ultimate Mechanic, alone is probably responsible for making 80% of planes in East Asia unusable, resulting in either shutdowns or plane crashes, with his brainwashed allies taking care of the rest. It therefore is a status symbol for the Future Foundation to possess a number of helicopters, but even they struggled to get airplanes that could do an intercontinental flight. This explained the extremely tight security Toko Fukawa encountered at the air field. Suffering through the indignity of two put‑downs with a security guard whom Toko was certain was getting off on handling a defenseless woman, despite already heading over all scissors of her alternate personality.

"You better a-appreciate this," she thought bitterly. Even though Toko was willing to do and risk anything to get Komaru Naegi, her only friend in the world, back, she was under no obligation to endure the entire process happily. Thoughts of Komaru distracted her whilst the safety procedures came to a close and she was lead onboard of the plane. The plane proved surprisingly spacey compared the flights Toko was used to, back when her successful writing career had her fly to award ceremonies one or two times a year. The obvious conclusion was that this was a former private jet, the kind of decadent luxuries really rich people indulged before the breakdown of society. Toko couldn't help but smirk internally, thinking that whatever happened to the former owner, he probably had it coming for being a rich bastard.

She saw that Makoto was not yet onboard of the plane, therefore she decided to take a seat in the furthest corner of the plane. After yesterday's events, she obviously did not feel like talking to him, or anyone else for that matter. She lost her composure, something she had sworn herself to avoid doing when other people can see it. Therefore, as far as she was concerned, he was free to take a seat anywhere else. Of course, he did not do her the favor, sitting down across from her. He smiled awkwardly, clearly feeling concerned about what happened in his office. Toko suppressed the urge to comment on it, telling him to leave if he didn't like her presence.

"How are you doing?" he asked, his voice filled with genuine concern. Toko couldn't help but notice that both Naegis are good at appearing like they care about you. Well, Komaru's case is helped by the fact that she actually cares about Toko, even if the latter still failed to understand why.

"C-could be better, don't act like you care," she replied venomously.

"Well," he continued, "it must be tough for you."

Toko merely turned her head away in disgust, always feeling bothered by Makoto pretending to care. Normally, she would have ignored him and would have escaped into a fantasy involving her and Byakuya in situations that would raise the rating of any show involving them by at least two age classes, but after yesterday, she was not in the mood to think of him, feeling only bitterness at the idea.

"Alright, here we go," Makoto said as the plane started to accelerate, "I am pretty nervous, I actually never have been on a plane before."

"It's n-nothing special," Toko said, "You get used to it after some time."

With that, conversation died again. Makoto seemingly accepted that Toko was not in the mood for conversation and so he focused on the paperwork in front of him. Whilst he could leave much of the work regarding Hope's Peak Academy with his trusted partner Kyoko Kirigiri, there were a handful of documents that he needed to work off himself. Dryly, he noted that the return of civilization also resulted in the return of bureaucracy, as he worked through insurance documents and other important files. This took him much longer than expected, because by the time he pulled his head back off, Toko had nodded off and the sky had already turned dark. Being a man, Makoto couldn't help but notice that Toko looked kind of cute. Immediately after noticing the fact, his brain imagined with her reaction if she were to notice that he had looked at her like that in her sleep. The short, brown-haired man knew that it would probably involve plentiful accusations of sexual deviancy, something he could not really deny, but wasn't willing to deal with

Suddenly, the plane started shaking, causing a sign to flash. Needing no instruction to understand the symbol, he did as was requested of him and tightened his seatbelt. Before he could worry about getting Toko to do the same, a voice from the communications system interrupted his train of thoughts.

"Alright, we're flying through some minor trouble, it's gonna shake this old bean up a bit, but don't worry, it's nothing to concern yourself with," the voice of a pilot who clearly has dealt with these kind of problems day in-day out throughout the years explained. Makoto couldn't help but feel relief after these words, knowing that Future Foundation had found a pilot capable of bringing them safely to Novoselic. Suddenly, a slight jerk knocked the overhead compartment open, causing Toko's bag, which she sloppily placed in there, to drop down, hitting the authoress like a brick.

"Toko! Are you alr-," Makoto began before noticing her tongue rolling out in a way that nature never intended. Knowing the implication of this, Makoto began to feel worried. He didn't think that he was up to the task of dealing with Toko's alternate personality on this flight.

"Big Mac? What's going on? Why am I on a plane?" a voice much harsher than Toko's inquired, using her favourite nickname for Makoto Naegi. Before he could answer, the serial killer known as Genocide Jack had developed a theory already and of course immediately voiced it.

"Aaaaah, you wanna join the Mile High Club? With Ms. Gloomy … or even me? Oh, Mahkyutie, you pervert! KYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~," her vile, piercing laughter echoed throughout the plane, as Makoto felt a minor headache coming up. "You are not Master, so..." before she could continue, she felt a disturbance in her emotions. When saying "Master", clearly referring to Byakuya Togami, the usual lust she felt for him was only subdued and instead she couldn't help but feel a small touch of disgust.

"Okay, what did lamer me do?," she asked, her face showing a displeased expression.

"Excuse me, but what do you mean?" Makoto had to inquire.

"When I just said Master, I felt differently and not in a good way. We share emotions, so she must have fucked up something," Jack explained.

"We-well, he said that we shouldn't go after Komaru and Toko didn't like that…," Makoto stuttered, obviously not wanting to go into too much detail about what happened between the two nearly 30 hours ago.

"Dekomaru's gone?" she asked angrily, not hiding her displeasure about hearing that.

"Yes, she went to Novoselic a few weeks ago, but never came back. That's why we are flying there," Makoto explained.

"If she is missing, she is probably dead," Genocide Jack stated with the directness of a serial killer, immediately jumping to what seemed like a logical conclusion. What Makoto could not recognize through her cold statement was that she felt sick at the mere idea, the first time she felt this way about the idea of someone being dead.

"No, that's wrong!" Makoto suddenly shouted, startling himself more than anybody else. "I mean, this is going to sound silly, but I can feel she is not," he explained in a calmer tone.

"Oh, MacBook, that's so cheesy. I like it," the Ultimate Murderous Fiend responded, punctuating her statement with another loud laugh. Again, she kept her cards close and did not let Makoto know that he actually managed to help her through her unease. He didn't need to know that he made her feel better and that she actually believed him fully. There's no fun if she just said it like this.

"So, when do we arrive in Novosuckic?" she asked, giving the country a rather unimaginative nickname as she was wont to do.

"We are not that far away, I think it'll be around an hour, if we are lucky even less," Makoto said, looking at a nearby screen, "Maybe we should catch a nap?"

His suggestion clearly displeased Genocide Jack, who merely shook her finger.

"Oh, please. We have just begun! Let's have some fun instead!" she shouted and moved her hand towards her waist. Grasping for the scissors, she instead only found air and an empty holder.

"Macarena, where did Ms. Gloomy put the scissors? I thought she knew better than to try to hide them," Genocide Jack shouted, clearly displeased at being disarmed. Makoto noticed that she clearly felt at unease, something he had never seen in her. He noted full of interest that apparently, even serial killers have things they get attached to, even if it was only the tools she used to commit her horrible deeds.

"Airport security," he explained matter-of-factly, "They are safely stored in the cargo hold, you can have them back once we are landed."

"You better tell the truth, or else I might have to find a new way of skinning you alive. Like an Italian chef trying to cook Shepard's Pie instead of Spaghetti Arrabiata," she threatened him. She couldn't help but flash a very quick smile once she saw his concerned and confused face. Clearly, he didn't know or believe that she has retired from the killing business.

"D-don't worry, that won't be necessary," he confirmed, trying to mask his fear with a forced laugh. For some reason, Genocide Jack didn't like seeing him like that. Maybe because he wasn't what she usually considered attractive, so his fear didn't turn her on.

"You are too tense, Maggi! I won't hurt you," she said, clearly enjoying this situation more than he was, "unless you want me to, of course. You don't get me fired up, but who am I to not stab someone who wants to be stabbed? KYAHAHAHAHA~"

Makoto waved his hands in a matter that was to suggest a lack of interest in being stabbed. He was looking for a way to turn the conversation away from him and on to other topics. Unfortunately for him, he did not know anything about Toko Fukawa's other personality, her dreams, desires and dedication, so he had no choice but to go with the most obvious of questions.

"Why do you, well, kill people? Isn't it a waste of life?"

"Let me ask you something instead," Genocide Jack responded, rolling her eyes slighty, "Why does a painter draw shit? Why does a gamer play video games? Nobody ever asks those questions, so why the fuck do I need a reason to do what I do?"

"That is something completely different," Makoto countered, failing to convince Jack, but amusing her with the attempt.

"Wow, you got guts trying to lecture a serial killer, KYAHAHAHAHA~," she responded, "but don't worry. I actually kinda don't kill anyone anymore. Scaring the children at your academy is much more fun!"

With that, Makoto had confirmation that it was Toko's alternate personality who was responsible for the reported incidents of students outside after the curfew where hunted all across the building by a "manically laughing woman". He couldn't help but giggle at the information, since most descriptions of those incidents were of humorous nature and his concern for the safety of the students quickly vanished once it became clear after the first few reports that all those incidents ended up being merely humiliating for everyone involved. When it came to the observation of said curfew, her actions in fact proved rather helpful.

"I am glad to hear that," he commented. Suddenly, Genocide Jack's mood turned very serious and she looked at Makoto with piercing eyes. Any feeling of relief that had settled it for Makoto went away as quickly as it came. With an evil look in her eyes, she bent forward, immediately removing any distance between herself and the former Ultimate Lucky Student, who was feeling less lucky than he would have been normally if a young woman leaned over towards him. With a heavy aura, Genocide Jack's voice sounded eerily cold and vile.

"Actually, everything I just said was a lie."

* * *

As usual, I would like to first thank all readers. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

For this chapter, I want to note that it is canonically impossible for Genocide Jack's free-time events to actually have taken place in the canon version of the DR1 events, so if you are wondering why I am going through some of those motions, that is why.


	4. To Flick the Switch of Death

Makoto Naegi found himself very worried. If Genocide Jack were to lose control and attack him, he would probably not be able to get to safety within this plane. Instinctively, he searched his environment for any avenues of escape or improvised close-quarter combat weaponry, failing to find anything of use to him. Giving Genocide Jack a papercut would not stop her at all. Suddenly, she moved her right hand, causing him to flinch and close his eyes. A scream escaped him as he braced himself for an impact that never came, only opening his eyes once he heard a familiar noise.

"KYAHAHAHAHAHAHA~," the former murderous fiend laughed out loud.

"Oh my god, Marco Polo! You are so anxious, this is hilarious!" she screamed full of excitement and amusement, "You were all like, 'Please don't kill me, please don't kill me'! This is hilarious. Most of the pretty boys I sliced up try to maintain their dignity until I get started. You started screaming before I did anything. KYAHAHAHAHAHAHA~!"

Makoto felt relief that the situation was not anywhere near as dire as he expected. He did not appreciate being the butt of his mean-spirited joke, but the School Life of Mutual Killing had taught him that that was sometimes unavoidable for him. Still, he was upset at being frightened like this, so he turned away from Genocide Jack, who was still awfully close.

"Oh, don't be like that, Mahkyutie," she touched his cheek with a surprisingly soft touch, "I just wanted to have some fun."

Whilst Makoto wasn't surprised that a touch from Toko's body would be so gentle, he did not expect her alternate personality to act this carefully. He blushed involuntarily, which caused Genocide Jack to pull her hand away and put on a mean-spirited grin.

"Macarena is falling in love, KYAHAHAHAHAHAHA~," she teased him, "Jack and Jack-oto sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g! First comes love, then comes marriage..."

Her signing amused Makoto more than it upset him, though he would have to admit that he found himself upset by being stringed along like that by Genocide Jack. Clearly, it was time for him to play along and have some fun at her expense as well. Coming up with a hopefully amusing idea quickly, he got ready to play his part.

"Indeed. So, when do we get married?" he asked, his voice deadpan. Genocide Jack was slightly taken aback by the comment, a rare sight that Makoto enjoyed for all few microseconds it lasted. She recovered quickly, though, and flashed her psychotic smile at the headmaster of Hope Peak's Academy.

"Ah-ah-ah, Ma-kun," she said whilst waiving her finger in a scolding manner, "even if I am a psychotic murderer, I don't give my heart away that easily. Marriage is something special and is therefore reserved for someone special. And while you are kinda cute, you are not special enough."

Makoto found himself a bit confused at her statement: he certainly appreciated the compliment, but did not expect it. Furthermore, he found himself surprised by the fact that Genocide Jack took the concept of marriage so serious. His curiosity peaked, he decided to take a risk and ask her about it.

"I didn't think you'd care much for marriage, to be honest."

"Well, I am the split personality of a romance author," Jack explained whilst slightly bopping him on the head, "so what do you expect? Almost all women dream of finding a special someone to spend your life with, we are just more honest about it."

Her conversational partner subconsciously nodded, urging Genocide Jack to continue her monologue. The former serial killer noticed Makoto's interest with amusement. She was not surprised by the idea that her talking about romance would be something most people would consider sick or abnormal. However, she couldn't help but notice that his interest seemed almost genuine.

"Besides," she added, "if you marry me, you'll also be married to Ms. Gloomy, and you wouldn't want that!"

"Well, I didn't think about that…," Makoto admitted, "… but that wouldn't be so bad."

Slightly shocked at what he was saying, he immediately shut his mouth and started hoping he wasn't going to blush. Toko's other personality raised an eyebrow in disbelief. Of course Jack wasn't gonna let Makoto off the hook this easily, this required some research.

"I'd say it is," she expressed, "but do tell me, why wouldn't it be?"

"Well, she's smart, creative and – according to Komaru – loyal to the death. Given as we are on this plane right now, I would agree with that assessment," Makoto explained, "I would say those are good qualities for a wife. It's not like I like her, but I can imagine worse people to be married to."

"Oh my, loverboy, if my lamer me was around, she'd either stutter herself to death or believe you are trying to pull a fast one on her," Genocide Jack commented amused, she couldn't help but find these conversations entertaining. Normally, in the periods she is on-air, most two-sided conversation is annoying and boring to her, but both Naegis seem to have the ability to make interesting conversation with a serial killer. Noteworthy talent, if nothing else.

"Though being married to her means being married to me," she reminded Makoto,"so would you say I am waifu material?"

Taken aback by the pointless and phonetically-incorrect use of the English word "wife", he needed to think a bit about the answer and recalled something he was told in the early days of the School Life of Mutual Killing.

"Well, there was one thing the disguised Mukuro Ikusaba told me. You know about her?" Makoto inquired, earning a "Yeah" from Genocide Jack, who had never met her, but was told the gist of the story, "She claimed I was a "super passive" person when it comes to romance and that I needed an "aggressive girl" and you certainly are one, if you don't mind me saying it like that, so in a way..."

Even though he trailed off, not wanting to finish his sentence, Genocide Jack pondered over his words for a few seconds, seemingly judging Makoto in her mind. After doing so, she snapped loudly with her fingers.

"Guilty as charged, KYAHAHAHAHAHAHA~," she screamed, "I can get quite direct with pretty boys I like, so I can see why this would work. Shame you are not getting me fired up like Master Byakuka does, so there's no chance for you."

Makoto merely smiled an awkward smile at her, choosing not to inform her that he was perfectly fine with not marrying either her or Toko. Although there was a significant part of his brain that clearly was having fun with this conversation. Perhaps Ikusaba was correct and he was better off with an aggressive woman after all, at least when it comes to being friends. It's not like his other female friends are passive personalities. Kyoko Kirgiri, the Ultimate Detective, was quite forceful in her own way, even if she cleverly hides that fact under a serene personality, and Aoi Asahina, former Future Foundation member and current P.E. teacher at Hope's Peak Academy, also did not follow the classic principles of Japanese womanhood, though it would be unwise to mention that in her presence, given as she always feared it would impair her romantic options. Her being pregnant and having her wedding to the father of the unborn child in a few days clearly proved the opposite. Makoto hoped that they would be lucky enough to get this situation done quickly, so he and his sister could join them for the ceremony. Aoi herself was more pragmatic about the situation, saying that it's more important that Komaru is found. She clearly had grown fond of Makoto's sister, as many people around her had.

"Stop dreaming!" Genocide Jack's loud scream ripped Makoto right out of his contemplation. He shook his head and bowed it slightly forward as a small gesture of apology. Jack seemed content with this.

"What's the plan once we arrive in No-Bro-Solic?" she asked Makoto.

"Basically, we will be picked up by an agent of the secret service and be led to a location where we can meet the King without any risk to his or our safety," Makoto explained the plan, "where he will tell us everything he knows, both in regards to Komaru and to our parents. We can then learn whether he is compromised or not."

"What do you mean, 'compromised'?" Genocide Jack interjects, "You mean he could be an enemy or what? He could be responsible for Dekomaru disappearing?"

Makoto merely nodded, but Genocide Jack clearly could recognize that the idea was on his mind. He didn't appear to look like he actually believed it, but the mere concept was enough to get him upset. Clearly, Genocide Jack noted to herself, Makoto is one of these people who always think the best of people, regardless of how little they deserved it. She also added that this would explain why he is extending so much common courtesy to a damned mass murderer like herself.

"If he has Dekomaru, I will make him tell me where she is and then I will cut him up in a way that he will be begging for death," Genocide Jack told Makoto. He didn't doubt her for one bit and had to force himself to not think the obvious thought that doing so may actually prove necessary if Agent Democracy is a threat to Future Foundation. This was something Byakuya Togami and Kyoko, his fellow Future Foundation members, emphasized: in the worst-case scenario, Makoto must grow comfortable with the idea of using lethal force, if only to save himself. Makoto, who has, in his opinion, seen enough death for half a dozen lifetimes, hated the idea and therefore tried to push the idea of Democracy being a traitor as far away as his brain allows him to. His thoughts were interrupted by a voice coming in from the intercom.

"Novoselic have confirmed the landing code, we're now beginning landing approach at Grohl Airport," the pilot informed his two passengers, who strapped themselves in.

"Landing code? Is this some movie shit?" asked the both literally and metaphorically long-tonged woman.

"Since Novoselic was torn apart by the Tragedy", Makoto helpfully explained, "they only allow selected people to enter the country to reduce the risk of crime. If you come in by air, you must transmit a long alphabetical code. These codes can only be handed out by the highest government officials, which is why we need to cooperate with King Ladislav Nevermind for the time being, regardless of whether it is safe to do so or not."

Both satisfied, yet disinterested with that explanation, Jack looked out of the window. Whilst the sky was clear and sunny, the view still was a depressing sight. Many ruins could be seen in what he pilot said was Grohl, the capital of Novoselic. Even those buildings that were repaired were done so in the cheapest, most unaesthetic manner possible. Clearly, the recent years of human history, including the The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History, had taken a horrible toll on the city.

The plane sets on the ground, causing a minor bump. As soon as it has come to a halt, Jack tears off her seatbelt and jolts for the exit, leaving Makoto to grab his and Fukawa's stuff. He wondered what would await him in this country he had never even really heard of before he came involved in events beyond in his understanding a few years ago. He also asked himself whether spending time with a murderous fiend will be valuable or the best way to drive him insane … or both.


	5. To the City, the Big, Big City

Genocide Jack enjoyed the fresh air filling her lungs as the stormed down the stairs, away from the plane. She was not a fan of closed spaces, even if she wasn't afraid of them like her weaker personality was. Turning around, she saw that her chaperonage still had not joined her.

"Come on, Big Mac," she shouted, "hurry up!"

Eventually, he arrived next to her side as a grey sedan was heading towards them. Even if Jack didn't care for cars at all, she could not miss the fact that this car was both old but also very sturdy and was from no brand she had ever heard of. Coming to a stop around five meters away from them, the doors of the car opened and two well-trained men wearing some sort of uniform left the car. Genocide Jack noted that neither of them really qualified as attractive, being too beefy for her taste. However, she did classify them as a threat, as two large men in uniform are usually bad news. She cursed her lack of scissors and just decided to take a cautious step back.

"Mr. Naegi, Ms. Fukawa?," the shorter man asked in heavily-accented Japanese, taking off his sunglasses. Makoto nodded in response, causing the man to extend his hand. Makoto trustingly extended his own hand for a quick handshake. He extended the same gesture to Jack, who took the hand and squeezed as hard as she could shaking it. She couldn't help but laughing out loud when she noticed that the man actually winced in pain.

"I am Jonas Lithium, member of his Majesty's Intelligence Service," the man explained, shaking off the pain in his hand, "Our majesty would have liked to meet you in person immediately, but to avoid any risks, the King will meet with you tomorrow noon. Until that time, you are free to explore the beauty of Grohl as you like. Please let us take you to your hotel."

With that, he guided the two guests towards the car. Sensing no immediate threat, Genocide Jack accepted the invitation and placed herself on the rear seat of the car. The larger man took the bags from Makoto and placed them in the trunk, before also putting a small metal case in there as well.

"Oh no, no, no, big guy," Genocide Jack said, jumping up from the seat and swiftly grabbing the case from him. Opening the case, she found what she expected to be in there: her beloved Genoscissors. She quickly took a pair out of the case before handing it back to the now very confused young man. Genocide Jack felt much better and significantly less naked now.

"What are those for?" the smaller man asked in a serious voice as Genocide Jack just stared at him, wondering whether he was going to do something rash.

"Those are a weapon for self-defense," Makoto explained desperately, clearly sensing that the situation had gotten extremely tense, "She won't use them unless she has to."

Whilst Jonas was obviously not buying that statement, he merely grunted and nodded. Finally, all four entered the car. The other man turned on the engine, before pulling away from the plane at high speed. The two men spoke in a language Genocide Jack did not understand. However, she could clearly sense that she was the topic of conversation. These two probably discussed the usual dull questions, why she had her tongue hanging out like that, what's with her scissors, why does she look completely psycho? Nobody asked themselves about the fun things about her, like how would it be like to struggle with her beautiful body or how she'd cut them up and what music she considers right for the perfect murder. "What a shame," she thought. The car left the airport and joined the regular traffic – if you could call it that, as they only saw one or two cars, looking equally fancy as the one they were driving in.

"Not many cars around here," Makoto noted, probably just in an attempt to start some conversation.

"Well, most of our oil reserves were used up in the wars," Jonas explained, referring to the violence and bloodshed caused by Queen Sonia before she was usurped and handed over to Makoto for his Neo World Program, "so there are many more cars around, but few can actually be used. We are working on establishing an algae fuel source so we can get them back on the road, but as you can clearly see, we have other things to worry about as well right now."

"Who cares about that shit?" Genocide Jack asked in her usual direct manner, "You guys are some secret agents, right? Have you found something regarding Dekomaru?"

"Who?"

"My sister, Komaru Naegi," Makoto explains, putting on a rather concerned expression. Genocide Jack was unsure whether it was because mentioning her reminded him how much he worried about Dekomaru or whether he felt like she shouldn't have mentioned her to these two at all. Luckily for the mass murderer, she did not care either way.

"As I mentioned, we have other business to attend to," Jonas explained, his voice betraying a certain irritation caused by the foreign passengers, "but we have contacted our undercover personnel in forces hostile to the crown. We have not heard anything about them kidnapping a foreigner. Our majesty will inform you about the details, as some of those are even beyond my clearance."

With that, he considered the topic closed and silence engulfed the vehicle. Jack merely turned her head in disgust and discarded the agents as useless. If this supposed king has no good answers, she was going to cut up this entire country if she has to. She was not going to allow some random European country to mess with her and, more importantly, steal the best friend she and her weaker personality had. Whilst she did not want to entertain that thought anymore, she also began to consider the worst-case scenario that Dekomaru was no longer with them. As the thought made her feel physically ill, she could only spend a short time imagining her reaction, but it involved finding the culprits and then killing them gruesomely along with everyone that ever so much as smiled at them in the street.

Toko's promise to Byakuya was starting to grow utterly irrelevant. She was going to murder as many people as it took to get this situation over with. Not even Genocide Jack, however, could ignore the fact that this desire to kill had absolutely nothing to do with the sexual pleasure caused by slicing up pretty boys. She wondered whether boring, normal people also had these fantasies of violence when their loved ones are put in harm. God knows how many people have imagined murdering her, had they known who and where she was before the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History pretty much made the concept of criminal history irrelevant. Her involvement in killing Junko Enoshima, even if it was merely supporting Maggi, had basically given her a Get Out of Jail card for free and Toko's association with Future Foundation had prevented any wannabe-revenge seeker from harming her or, to be more precise, trying to do so.

Makoto, meanwhile, had gotten busy socializing with the agent who understood his language, breaking the silence in the car. She couldn't bother listening to him talk about some anime he used to watch, especially given as his taste in anime is average and plebeian. However, she could not help but feel a bit of amazement at this guy for trying to befriend anyone he comes along. It is like he is a cliché anime protagonist that has insipid girls join his harem simply by "being nice" to them. Though if Makoto was one of those guys, she and her alternate self are also part of his "harem". It was not like she was going to jump his bones or anything, not if Master is still around, but he also was surprisingly kind to both personalities and while she would not slaughter a whole country for him like she would for Dekomaru or Master, she wanted to keep him from harm in Brovoselic or whatever. At the very least Toko wanted to keep him safe, as Jack herself actually had his first long conversation with him only an hour or so ago.

Whilst being trapped in thought, the car pulled into a parking lot. Looking out of the window, Makoto and Jack saw a hotel. It was not a particularly outstanding building, but everything about it said class. Clearly, Novoselic had a few nice spots left and this was one of them. The young woman stormed out of the car thrilled. She had been in beautiful hotels before, the lame‑yet‑somehow‑popular books of Ms. Gloomy had seen to that, but she is never getting tired of being there. Back then, they mostly made for useful base to meet pretty boys to "do", but she enjoyed the good showers, the fun facilities and the advantages of being hardly known by most people.

Once again, she found that Makoto was dragging his feet. This time, however, he didn't even have the excuse of having to take care of their stuff, as a helpful hotel staff member had already taken the liberty of bringing the baggage to their rooms. She grabbed his arm and dragged him to the entrance. She suddenly stopped, nearly causing the small man to run her over.

"Oh my God," she suddenly shouted, "this hotel even has a gym!"

"That is nice," Makoto nodded.

"It damn su...," she started, before suddenly being hit with an idea, "Makoto! Get your ass to your room and put on some comfortable clothes. We'll do some sparring. Be in that gym in 30 minutes."

"It's quite late," Makoto argued, "and I wanted a shower."

"Who gives a fuck?" Jack asked rudely, "I want to shower too, after all I have to share body with Ms. 'Waaaaah, don't put water on me, I will die'. I absolutely retch, but there's more important shit to worry about."

For a reason Genocide Jack could not explain to herself, Makoto started blushing at her observation, but she dismissed it as irrelevant.

"This killer body," she continued, clearly too amused with her pun, "isn't going to stay in shape by itself, you know. Even I actually need training!"

Ignoring the pun, Makoto weakly nodded, seemingly understanding that resistance was futile. He merely went away, picking up his key at the reception. Genocide Jack followed him eagerly. The upcoming hour was going to be fun.

* * *

As usual, I would like to thank the 16 followers of this story as well as any other reader taking the time to read this story. I hope you enjoy this chapter and am looking forward to hearing from you if you decide to leave feedback.


	6. I'd Appreciate Your Input

Makoto Naegi pulled up the pants of the tracksuit he brought on his journey. He only took it with him in case his proper clothing got dirty, not expecting it to actually see any use for sports. Exercise was something he generally shied away from doing, preferring to keep healthy through right diet alone. Especially given as his life over the last few years had been thrilling enough without constant running around. Yet here he was, entering a gym and preparing to do what Genocide Jack called "sparring". He found himself asking, full of concern, just what a serial killer's idea of sparring is and was considering just leaving, before realizing that displeasing her may not be the wisest move. Whilst he doubted that she would actually harm him, he was also very much aware of the reality that he had only few ideas about how she would act if something – or, more to the point, someone – were to personally insult or displease her.

After he had stored his stuff in his room, he had noticed that this hotel was very empty with maybe like one or two dozen guests being around. Therefore it was not surprising to see that the gym section of the hotel was completely devoid of them. Looking around, he noticed that the gym only had a handful of actual fitness equipment, but featured a large space for free exercise, which Makoto put down to a general lack of complex machinery in the country. He knew there were many exercise types where you don't actually need machines for. His parents did yoga exercises regularly, hogging the TV to watch their exercise tapes. It was something he didn't always care for, but he would give up so much to return to those days.

After shaking his head in a surprisingly successful attempt to bury this line of thinking, his eyes noted Genocide Jack working out on a stepper, evidently bored with the process. She was wearing a black tank top, the color of which clearly had seen better days, and purple workout tights that fit tightly to her lower body. Makoto almost found himself checking out her bottom, but immediately caught and stopped himself. Clearly, it was not a wise idea to ogle Genocide Jack, regardless of what she was going to do if she were to also notice the path of his eyes.

Makoto walked over to her and was about to say something, when she suddenly jumped off the machine and swung an open hand at the young man. Makoto could not react and was hit right in the face by the slap. Staggering back, he saw her pulling something out of her pants, immediately recognizing it as a scissor. Instinctively, he kicked towards her hands, trying to get the weapon of her hand, but missing the murderous fiend by quite a bit. Genocide Jack immediately swiped past him, putting the blade of the scissors right to Makoto's throat.

"How boring. Let's end this," she says in a menacing voice that made Makoto fear for his life. On instinct, he jumped backwards, catching his opponent by surprise and dropping both of them to the floor. Makoto used the space this action got him to stand up and bring some distance between himself and Genocide Jack. His attack did not stop her for long, she jumped up from the floor with amazing athleticism. In any other situation, Makoto would have been impressed, but right now it only caused him to lose his footing again, resulting in another painful landing on the floor.

"That's just pathetic," Genocide Jack taunted him with a voice stranded between mockery and hatred, "Pretty much everyone I killed had more fight in them than you. If you fight like this, Dekomaru is as good as dead. I should just kill you and search for her on my own. No wonder Kyoto damn near bit the dust last time you two were in any danger. Hell, did you even actually do anything when that crazy chick had us locked up in school besides talk like a smartass?"

In a more rational situation and with someone else telling him these words, Makoto would have come to realize that this vile taunt was merely meant to provoke him into violent action and would have gone for a peaceful approach, but right now, given the entire situation and the uncertainty of the recent weeks, these words fulfilled their purpose and enraged him. As Genocide Jack stepped over him, she clearly did not expect any more action, but Makoto's right leg shot upwards with major force, hitting her straight in the space between her legs. Even after all the fighting experience she has gained as a murderer and as the joint savior of Towa City, she, like all men and women, was not immune to being hit in that spot.

She cringed at the severe pain caused by this sneak attack, stepping a bit back, allowing Makoto enough space to do push himself up from the ground, following with a strong punch directed at Toko Fukawa's murderous split personality. That proved a silly and overambitious idea, as she merely stepped aside and let Makoto's momentum carry him past her, causing him to miss the punch in a highly embarrassing fashion.

"A cunt punt? REALLY?" she shouted in anger, throwing her scissor at Makoto, who quickly took cover behind a machine. The scissor poked into the seat and got stuck. Genocide Jack immediately ran forward to grab them, which Makoto had expected. He greeted her with a tackle, pushing both of them back to the ground. He then pulled at her tongue, the obvious weak point of the murderous fiend. Jack countered by biting him in the hand, allowing her to get out of his grip and immediately dive for her trusted weapon. She pulled it out of the seat and charged towards Makoto, who himself got up and prepared his "defense".

The Headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy had remembered something from an introduction into self‑defense his friends Kyoko Kirigiri and Aoi Asahina had forced him to take. Trying to take that lesson to heart, he reached out for Jack's arm, trying to avoid the sharp, pointy weapon. Against all odds, he actually succeeded in doing so, using her momentum to launch her up in the air, causing her to crash hard on the gym floor. Driven by a very rarely-seen boost of adrenaline and testosterone, he connected with two sloppy fists straight to the face. As he noticed that she was reaching for her weapon who had dropped of her hand, he pushed her arms down to impede her movement. Looking down, he saw a bruised Genocide Jack who was blushing hard, her face displaying a disturbing grin.

"Are you okay?" he asked, getting concerned. His previous combat mindset had disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived and he returned to the more civilized nature he displayed in virtually all situations. He took in the situation unfolding here, he had pinned a serial killer to the floor and not only disarmed her, but actually had her at his mercy. Thankfully, he was above what most other men would consider doing in such a situation. Still, he felt a bit of pride at his underdeveloped, but effective combat skills.

"More than that, Big Mac," she answered very enthusiastically, interrupting Makoto's train of thought comparing this fight with the much more dangerous battle against Munakata. The headmaster of Hope Peak's Academy had to stop himself from thinking she sounded aroused, "way more than that." With no effort at all, she freed her hands from Makoto's grip, which he hadn't loosened yet, and pushed the young man away from her with force. Makoto's pride at his martial accomplishments went out the window as quickly as it arrived, given as she had merely allowed him to think he had won."Now get away from me or else this pure maiden may just do something where you can no longer call her a pure maiden," she said.

Genocide Jack jumped up and rushed out of the area, leaving Makoto to process what exactly she had just said. As soon as the implication had reached his brain, he was left to blush. He was lucky nobody was around to watch this ineffable mess, given as it would have raised a lot of questions. Questions of which he could answer an infinitesimal amount, if that much. Makoto knew only one thing for absolute certainty: he was going to need a long shower after this one and not just because of the sweat dripping off his forehead.

* * *

Once more thank you all for reading my story. You will/should find that I've changed the titles of the previous chapters; that's because I have made slight creative changes that meant the old theme of naming chapters wasn't matching where I want to take this story anymore. Outside of that, I hope I can make these changes without it being noticed.

MythGirl Writes: would be a shame to miss their sparring session, wouldn't it? Well, it's not gonna happen, so no worries on that front.


	7. You'll Be Leaving With a Fat Lip

The bright sun burned the eyes of Genocide Jack as she opened them, waking up from a long slumber. The former serial killer jumped from her bed and grabbed a bunch of clothing from the bag Toko had brought along. She never really cared for the clothes of her alternate personality, who mainly preferred her old school uniforms and other long dresses, but outside of tearing the skirts enough to allow her more maneuverability, she never bothered to get stuff of her own, knowing that they would end up in the trash one way or another as soon as Toko took over. A loud yawn involuntary left her mouth. After yesterday's sparring session with Makoto had left her in a passionate state, it took her a bit to fall asleep.

In all her years of violence, Jack never encountered someone like Makoto. Of course, a number of the pretty boys whom she 'did' fought back, but nobody was as dirty about it as he was. They usually subconsciously do not want to harm a 'little girl', so they usually just tried pushing her over and other weak stuff and never lived long enough to truly get into a fighting mindset. Most of them actually froze at the idea that they were at the mercy of a murderous fiend. That usually was fun, but it never gave her anywhere near as much satisfaction as Makoto's style did. She clearly had underestimated him as she considered him a meek weakling. She was quite torn, clearly wanting to spar with Makoto again with all that could happen beyond that, but she did not want to cheat on her beloved Master.

Ignoring these emotions, which she did not consider fun, she sprinted out of the room and down the stairs. Despite her room being on the third floor, it only took her around a minute to get to the main floor. She noticed Makoto, who himself was about to enter the hotel restaurant.

"Hey, Mahkyutie, going anywhere?" she shouted, drawing his attention. He waved his hand awkwardly, fully aware that they were drawing quite some attention.

"I was just going to get some breakfast. Do you want to join me?"

"Why not, I am hungry myself," she answered, "I hope they have blood pudding."

Makoto looked at her disturbed, which caused her to frown bemused.

"Oh man, you believe every stereotype about serial killers there is. Like I'm actually drinking blood or wanting to eat blood food like that," she stated and went to the buffet counter, grabbing a normal breakfast. Makoto did not pursue the conversation any further and got himself a bowl of cereal. They took a seat at the nearest free table and started eating.

"I kinda wanted to ask already, what's with the stupid suits?" she asked, referring to the grey suit he was wearing, as he was most days.

"You think they are stupid?" he said, sounded dejected, "I like them and I am a school headmaster after all..."

"I never liked school, you know," her response came.

"It's more fun if you are in charge," Makoto responded with a smile, causing Jack to laugh out loud. "So, what're we doin'?" the serial killer asked, ignoring the attention her volume caused.

"Well, we are meant to meet the king at 10:30, it's…," the Ultimate Hope began, before checking his watch, "… 8:27, so we basically have two hours to look around." He placed a small book on the table. "Jonas," he continued as Genocide Jack struggled to remember who that was, "gave me this book with "interesting sights", but looking through it reminds me of school field trips, and those were kind of boring."

"I got an idea," Genocide Jack shouted, "let's go boy-watching around town. See if there's some cuties around. Getting heated up is just what we need to deal with this Kong King!"

Makoto distorted his face for a second before Jack grabbed his wrist, dragging him away from the table. The inactive serial killer dashes for the next exit, Makoto in tow. A grey sky welcomed the duo to the city of Grohl, capital of Novoselic. Genocide Jack quickly scouted the environment, before heading towards what she assumed to be the city centre. Makoto tore himself free from her grip, but did not refuse to follow her. Both arrived quickly at an open plaza, taking a seat. Genocide Jack began scouting, but found the selection of young men in the area rather lackluster.

"Finding someone that gets you … heated up?" Makoto asked Genocide Jack nervously, a hand placed on his neck.

"Does it look like it, you idiot?" Jack's harsh response came, though it seemed to not phase him. "Actually, forget the pretty boys. I found something much more interesting."

Jack pointed towards a store across the plaza. Makoto clearly struggled to see what she was pointing at, but after a few seconds he saw: an anime shop displaying Blu-Ray cases and figurines in the window.

"Do you want to check it out?" Makoto asked. Wordlessly, Genocide Jack smiled her vile smile at Makoto and nodded, leaving the duo to make their way across the plaza. Once they arrived, Jack immediately scanned the displayed covers. To her dismay, all the works displayed are either ancient children shows or what she loudly described as "normiecore trash".

"Seriously, who in the hell watches Sun Witch Esper Ito unironically?" she asked to nobody in particular.

Just as Genocide Jack was ready to leave the store behind, she noticed that they were surrounded by five bald-headed men wearing bomber jackets who clearly were not looking to sell her or Makoto anything.

The men spoke up, speaking in a language that neither Genocide Jack herself nor her chaperonage understood, though it sounded pretty much like the language used by the gorillas that picked the two up at the airport. Makoto raised his hands apologetically and subtly pushed Jack to the side, clearly trying to avoid conflict. Unfortunately, the young men were not having any of that, pushing the smaller man right into the window.

Genocide Jack had to keep herself from smiling, not at the misfortune of Makoto, but instead at a sudden opportunity to have some fun. Even though the stench of alcohol coming from these guys was irking her a bit, it was nothing she didn't have experience with in her previous pursuits. She also considered them surprisingly good looking for what basically boils down to a band of skinheads. Her excitement grew significantly when one of the drunkards grabbed her clothing. With a swift move of her free hand, she pulled out a Genoscissor. A slight turn of her upper body left the arm of the assailant defenseless. With a swift stroke, she cut right into it with enough force to, at least according to her own estimation, leave a permanent scar but avoid causing any serious damage.

A loud scream by the man caused his nearby friend to try to smother Jack, who merely used the momentum of the long-haired man to throw him onto the ground, giving him a strong kick in the rib in the process.

"With that beautiful face, I would totally do you if I hadn't stopped doing that," she admitted to the man. Her confession only caused confusion as it was rather clear that the man understood nothing or barely anything of the Japanese just used. Genocide Jack rammed another one of her scissors down, pinning the man's pants to the floor by burying the blade in the gap between the bricks of the foot-walk.

Jack looked to the side and saw Makoto, who was struggling to free himself from the tight grip the leader of this group had on his collar. The muscular man rocked his fist back, but just before his punch could connect, Naegi had slipped out of his grasp, leaving only the store's window glass as target. His fist went straight through the window.

"That's gonna hurt," Jack thought in the microsecond between the impact and the damage it caused. Her own experience taught her that glass rarely behaves like people see in action movies. Indeed, the glass did instant and significant damage, tearing the skin on a significant part of his arm. It only took a few seconds for blood to stain the man's clothing.

The scene was suddenly interrupted by a man shouting inside the store and two people approaching the scene. Genocide Jack did not need particular knowledge of European law enforcement to realize that the public authorities had taken notice of their little skirmish. She had no interest in dealing with the police, neither now nor at any other time, so she followed her instincts and grabbed Makoto, making a dash for a nearby small alleyway. A few turns later, she was certain that they were out of harm's way.

"Wow, this was a fun ride, Mac & Cheese. I never knew you could be this much fun," she said. Makoto made a face that implied he would have responded if he wasn't completely out of breath. "Seriously, last time I had this much fun was when I sliced up my last pretty boy. Do you wanna hear about it?" she asked with genuine excitement.

"I'll … pass," Makoto managed to squeeze out as breath was slowly returning to his lungs.

"Awww, what a shame!," Genocide Jack stated with a disappointed face. Her disappointment did not last long.

"Maybe we'll have more fun later," she said, more to herself.

"No," Makoto interrupted her with surprising sternness, causing Toko's alter ego to raise her eyebrows, "We're gonna do this my way first. I don't want to cause anybody harm."

The Ultimate Murderous Fiend rolled her eyes at Makoto's softness and was about to say something when he added to his previous statement.

"If we don't get anything useful, then we will do it your way," he said. Genocide Jack could not believe her ears. Did Little Goody Two-Shoes just agree to use violence? She pulled a hand up to his forehead, expecting to feel a high temperature. Nothing but slightly cool skin.

"W-w-what are you doing?" he asked. She took her hand away.

"I don't know you all that well, but that does not sound like you," she said.

"… true," he admitted, "I miss my family. I'll do a lot to get them back. It won't be necessary, I am sure there's a rational explanation for everything that has happened, but if your way helps me to get them back, that's the way it will go."

Genocide Jack felt both sickened and moved. No wonder Dekomaru trusted Ms. Gloomy and even a serial killer like her so quickly back then, if you have a brother like this in your back you expect nobody to fail you. She was beginning to hope their parents actually were alive, she was curious as to what kind of freaks would give birth to these saints. It was quite a change in comparison to the breeders that produced Ms. Gloomy, for whom a death by her hands would have been a fate too kind. She felt an urge to protect Big Mac just like she felt the urge to protect Dekomaru. Was she growing soft? "Thinking about that is boring," she told herself and simply for the time being would use anyone going against him as an excuse to get stabby.

She noticed Makoto looking at his watch. "We should go, it's nearly 10 o'clock," he suggested, "I have been told that it's social expectation in this country to arrive at least thirteen minutes before the agreed time at any serious meeting and we need to find that cafe first."

Genocide Jack nodded and they made their way.

"Hey, we should do that good cop-bad cop bullshit on that Kong King," she suggested, "I'll be the good cop, since I'm the cute one here."

Makoto laughed.

* * *

The fictional anime mentioned in this chapter is, according to SDR2, the most popular anime in the country of Novoselic by far. Given as it is a children's show, I guess a fujoshi like Genocide Jack would not be a particular fan of it.


	8. A Dainty Dish to Set Before a King

The cafe chosen by the King of Novoselic did not seem particularly royal. It was in the middle of Grohl, yet still was completely lacking in customers. "Maybe because it was in the middle of a working day," Makoto speculated silently. He and the former serial killer joining him sat down at the table assigned to them by a friendly waitress who said something neither of them understood. Makoto just nodded nicely and took the menu.

In the corner of his eyes, he noted Jack taking out one of her scissors, and flipping it around on her pinky finger. Makoto hoped that it would not be necessary, but the side of him that wanted his sister back was glad someone was there to take care of the ugly stuff it it became necessary. However, it was not like he believed it was going to be. He had faith in the blue-blooded member of Future Foundation, just like he had faith in him when he picked him for the Special Operations branch and extended an invitation into the organisation.

"There is that royal git," Genocide Jack shouted next to him, making motions to stand up. Makoto grabbed her arm with an unoccupied hand and to his own surprise, she actually sat down. He speculated that she was either growing more agreeable or had faith in him to resolve this issue and felt appreciated, even if it was only his interpretation of events.

Indeed, a lanky man had entered the building. Whilst his own outfit, a simple suit that had seen better days, would not inform anyone on his royal status, the two men accompanying him did: openly displaying machine pistols made clear that their main purpose was protecting the man in the worn suit. Immediately, the appreciation Makoto felt disappeared, given as Toko Fukawa's alternate personality probably sat down because of the armed people surrounding the king, not because of his sage guidance.

Makoto became concerned when he saw the man whom he previously only knew through text and a profile photo: said photo was made two years ago, but the man before them looked around ten years older. Whilst Makoto knew from own hard experience that responsibility can age you faster, it was not that bad for himself or anybody else he knew. Running Novoselic must be a hard task. As he saw him extend a hand towards the lady in the room, which was merely answered by arms crossed in front of her stomach and a glare, he saw the blonde hair of the king having acquired one or two grey streaks.

"Mr. Naegi," Ladislav IX said, extending his hand. Unlike his less polite partner, Makoto immediately took the greeting, shaking the hand of the statesman. With the formalities taken care of, the King sat at their table as well.

"It's a pleasure to…," Ladislav Nevermind began.

"Nevermind that shit! Where's the girl we're looking for!?" Genocide Jack shouted. The bodyguards immediately put up their weapons and aimed at the young woman, clearly and from Makoto's point of view justifiably fearing that the situation may escalate.

"Alright, alright, everybody calm down," Makoto said after a dangerous silence had set in, "Please accept our apologies, we are just very worried about her."

The king of Novoselic merely nodded and gestured his bodyguards to lower their guns which they reluctantly did. It was obvious to Makoto hat they still were on edge and would shoot the two if they did anything suspicious.

"I fully understand. Let's skip formalities and get to what we know as of now," he began, "My first message to you on this topic came after a regular check of the flights that were handed entry codes revealed that the passenger lists of one of the flights coming in held the names of what I presumed were your parents. As I explained in the message, I could and cannot afford to direct resources into investigating this, but felt you should know."

He showed a piece of paper to Makoto, who recognized the names of his parents on the passenger listing marked with red ink. What really drew his interest was the date when the landing code was handed out: it was the day before the operation to free the prisoners of the Ultimate Despair, who were used as motives in the Killing School Life, began. Said operation resulted in the capture of Byakuya Togami and the death of many Future Foundation agents and left Towa City in a situation where Future Foundation could only afford to supply passive support. Therefore, checking whether any planes departed either Towa City or any place surrounding it was something Future Foundation never considered.

"There must be a connection," he mumbled to himself. Thankfully nobody understood what he was saying. The king took the list back and continued.

"We sent the mail to you and received a response from Agent Betrayal, after which we prepared an entry code for her. According to our data, it went unused. According to your pilot, he landed and dropped her off. Obviously, that's a disparity. I see no reason why your pilot should lie, especially if he brought you here safely," Ladislav IX explained.

"So you have no clue where she is," quipped Genocide Jack rudely, "She could be in some German scat whorehouse for all you know."

"That … scenario," he began to explain with a somewhat disgusted voice, "is unlikely. You have to remember that we are the pariah of the European continent. Every single one of the three countries bordering us has at least two tank battalions patrolling the borders at any time of the day. Unless the government of these countries want you to enter, you do not leave this country on the ground. It would require a multinational conspiracy involving the highest levels of clearance of at least two countries to pull such a thing off. Human trafficking would be a lot easier elsewhere, especially in the countries that haven't fully recovered from the destruction Sonia and her ... allies caused."

Genocide Jack had apparently accepted that explanation, as Makoto's mind began to turn. If she is still in the country and someone wiped her entry into the country off the record, that would mean that those who would check the entry records would not know that she's there. This meant that someone wanted to keep her here without people noticing. Why? Thinking about it for a second, he came to the conclusion that it was for the same reason his parents were apparently brought here: to lure him here. Makoto began to wonder whether this meant that his parents are still alive. However, pushing his emotions to the side for now, he addressed the more important concern.

"Well," he began, "I think this makes one thing clear: whomever did this was doing so to lure me to Novoselic. Are we certain it's not a despair-affiliated group behind this?"

"I am!" came the swift response from the king, "Whilst, as you know, I was regrettably not able to remove all despair-associated supporters of my sister without causing a collapse of our already extremely fragile government infrastructure, I did take care of those in key positions and moved the rest to positions where they could do no harm. The people now occupying mentioned key positions are handpicked by me, especially those in external affairs like landing codes and are mostly made up of former members of the resistance against Sonia's reign of terror."

Makoto was reminded of the resistance who helped him capture Sonia Nevermind for his New World Program as the current king pronounced her given name with as much disdain as a politician can muster and without addressing her by any title, dismissing any claim of her regency being legitimate. To this day, Makoto does not fully understand how he actually managed to talk them out of summarily executing her. Those who suffered at her hands were rightfully angry and if Makoto was being honest, he would have fully understood had they not cooperated and just killed her. The death toll of her actions, both within Novoselic as well as the whole of Europe, is by far the largest of the group that used to be both Class 77-B of Hope's Peak and the Remnants of Despair with only Mikan Tsumiki's acts of bioterrorism even being in the same stratosphere. Then again, as was the case for all their deeds, the one person to blame for this was Junko Enoshima.

"We'll have to figure out why the data for the entry code was falsified. Can we speak to the staff responsible for checking the entry codes?" Makoto inquired.

"I have prepared access cards for the government offices, that way you can drop in anytime and ask around. Miroslav," he said, pointing to the smaller one of the armed guards, "will give them to you once we are done. For now, let's have something to eat. I took the liberty of ordering a national treat for us three. I am certain you will love our apple and chocolate pie."

Makoto was not in a position to disagree, especially after his female entourage had dragged him away from his breakfast. He figured any further questions could wait. The waitress dropped off a tray under a cloche.

"Hmm, that's unusual, they never serve the cake like that," the king noticed, causing the bodyguards to come closer and check out the cloche.

"I don't care, I'm hungry!" Genocide Jack shouted, lifting the cloche in a swift motion.

That was the last thing Makoto heard, as a loud noise deafened him, a bright light blinded him, and everything turned to black.

* * *

Today, we'll have two chapters at once. This is because from now on, I'll have less writing time on my hands and future chapters may take longer to produce. I apologise for the inconvenience and for trying your patience.

Furthermore, we are now beginning the part where the eponymous Novoselic Conspiracy fully unfolds, so stick around. :)


	9. Let the Revolution Take Its Toll

Whilst I normally would like to keep the author's notes at the end of the chapter, I feel like I should have them at the top this chapter. As the violence in this chapter is rather explicit, I do have to suggest that people uncomfortable with this subject should skip the chapter if possible.

I have also bumped up the rating of this story to account for the fact that things are going to have to get more violent from now on.

* * *

Toko struggled to open her eyes, as a dull ache filled her head. A very specific dull ache, in fact, that she figured nobody should be as familiar with as she is. Something, or someone, had just exploded in her vicinity again. Given as she has no idea what caused this and had no idea why she was no longer on a plane, it stood to reason that her split personality had been in charge for some time now.

She was highly concerned, figuring she would now have once again a lot to answer, as usually happened nowadays when her other personality took over. At least she could be reasonably sure she didn't have to wash off blood of her or deal with another aching cut in her upper leg.

The light flashing into her eyes as she opened them made it rather difficult to figure out where exactly she was. The loud noise of a couple of men shouting in some foreign language did not help. A deafening noise filled her ear as an assault rifle started firing in another room. Before she could even entertain the notion of panicking, she noticed a soldier standing over her body. Her eyes quickly made contact with his. He seemed shocked at seeing her alive. Whatever just happened, Toko figured, was meant to kill her. Or she was close to someone it was meant to kill. Where's Makoto anyway? She turned her head as the soldier ran off.

Her eyes wandered over to Makoto, who was completely motionless. The soldier put two fingers on his neck, checking his pulse. Toko did not understand his reaction, but from the tone of his voice, he was surprised at something. Given as he was surprised when seeing her alive and conscious, that meant Makoto was alive as well. Toko felt glad, which surprised her. It was not like she wouldn't have cared if he was dead, especially given as it would break Komaru, but before she blacked out on the plane, she was quite angry at him for causing this mess.

The soldier quickly checked on a man Toko did not recognize, but who was clearly alive as well, given he was breathing. Meanwhile, the gunfire had stopped and a woman joined the man. They had a heated exchange that somewhat reminded Toko of her parents. Once again, she failed to understand a word they were saying. Her self-loathing part scolded her for not learning any second languages.

There were two more men lying nearby, but the soldier did not bother to check of them and merely decided to shoot both of them in the head, directly causing Toko's headache to worsen. Disturbed, she wanted to yell at him to stop, but could not gather the energy to do so.

Toko finally got the idea to make a move and was standing up despite the pain in her head and body. Unfortunately, the male soldier did not approve of that and punched her directly in the liver. A sharp pain made any further movement impossible, as the man tied up her arms and her legs. Disturbed, Toko started screaming, her lungs finally having the energy to speak up. She was going to get raped right here and right now, next to Makoto, some random man and two corpses for no apparent reason.

"What did I do to de-de-deserve this?" she shouted. All she wanted was to get her best and only friend back and now she was going to be brutally violated.

"Shut up or I'll shoot you right now," the woman said in broken Japanese, pointing her rifle at Toko's head. Toko got quiet and focused on holding back the tears that were starting to well up in her eyes. She had no intentions of giving these people the satisfaction of seeing her cry, no matter how badly the assault from before hurt. At least her headache had gotten slightly better as the pain-sorting function of the brain focused more on her liver region.

The male soldier hit the lanky man near Toko in the head with his rifle butt before tying him up like her. Despite struggling with it, the woman dragged him away. She was picked up by the man, who had absolutely no challenge in putting her over his shoulder. Toko attempted to punch him, but with little energy in her body and her pain receptors working overtime, her attempts at resistance only served to annoy the soldier carrying her. After they had gotten out of the building, she saw that they were headed for a yellow post truck. The authoress in Toko couldn't help but praise her kidnappers for at least avoiding the cliché of a black truck and dropped her off in the back of the truck. After that, the duo threw five people in there. Toko immediately recognized two of them as the people that just were shot. It did not take long to notice the blood on the other three. Toko was appalled that they just threw corpses in the truck like it was the laundry. The blood nearly made Toko faint, but she desperately fought to stay conscious.

That fight got help as the three soldiers slammed the rear doors shut. Toko's brain gladly embraced the dimming of the light that caused as it helped with the still-present headache. She felt the vehicle speed off, causing her and the other person to tumble towards the back of the car. The truck came to a halt, probably at a crossroads. Toko took the time to sit down on one of the boards meant for package storage and found an angle piece to grab. At least she wasn't going to get tossed around whilst driving anymore.

Suddently, Toko noticed that the only other human still alive in the truck regained consciousness and mumbled something in the same language as her kidnappers. Toko's first instinct was to take a defensive position. Whilst it may not seem like he's on the side of the people who kidnapped her, it was better to be safe than sorry. She had no reason to trust him. The man looked at her, trying to figure out the situation. Puzzling the events together, he turned to her.

"Where are we? What happened? Where's Mr. Naegi?" he asked in a hurry in surprisingly fluent Japanese.

"I-in a truck, I d-don't know and left at w-w-wherever we w-were," she stuttered in response, "w-who are you? Wh-wh-what the devil is h-h-happening here? What d-d-do you have to do w-w-with these people?"

A look of confusion appeared on the exhausted face of the lanky man, before he figured out what was happening.

"Oooh, split personalty. I forgot what Mr. Naegi told me about that," he apologized, "I am Agent Democracy, Future Foundation, Special Operations branch."

Toko was surprised by this introduction. Evidently, her other self had actually gotten them to Novoselic and had met with Agent Democracy. So what the hell was going on here?

"Now back to my questions," he said in a commanding tone that, at least to Toko, led no room for debate.

"W-well, I woke up after an e-explosion had happened a-and suddenly th-three soldiers k-kill all these pe-people..." Toko explained, pointing to the small pile of bodies that had stacked up right next to her, "a-a-and put us in he-here."

From the disturbed look on his face, Toko concluded that King Ladislav had not even noticed them until now. He ran over to them and checked on them, even though Toko did not see any point in that. These people were obviously dead. He quickly came to the very same realization.

"Miroslav, Lubomir … who did that to you?" he asked to nobody in particular. Just as he did, the truck started moving again. Toko was wondering what took so long, but Agent Democracy fell over, once more hitting his head, causing him to curse in various languages. After getting himself together, the king pulled himself up to the bench Toko sat on, taking a seat far too close for Toko's liking.

"So you have no memories of what happened before that?"

"No," she responded swiftly.

"Darn," he muttered and got silent. Toko guessed that he was pondering whether he was going to get away with his betrayal of Future Foundation or what lie he should tell her in order to make her trust him. Suddenly, he bent over to the corpses of the people he apparently knew as if he was looking for something.

"Of course they disarmed the two," he explained his actions to Toko, "These were my bodyguards and they had weapons we could really use right now. I fear for now we will have to play along with whatever the people who captured us want while we come up with a plan."

"W-what do you m-mean, "plan"?" Toko shouted in response, pointing a finger at the noble, "I-it's very o-obvious that y-you are w-working together w-with them. You k-k-kidnapped Komaru and a-a-are now kidnapping me … for your h-harem or s-something!"

King Ladislav's face soured immediately.

"If I wanted to betray Future Foundation, I could have done so much earlier. Makoto was here alone when we handed Sonia over. All it would've taken is a bullet to his head and I could've done so without losing two of my closest associates."

His harsh voice, seemingly insulted at the mere suggestion, and his arguments made Toko accept that he had a point. She was not going to trust him outright, but he would have had easier ways to get his hands on her and Komaru.

"Anyway, I was thinking we should…", Ladislav began before the truck stopped and the engine was turned off. Toko heard the shuffling of feet before light entered her eyes. The women that kidnapped her and King Ladislav IX pointed her weapon at the two, ordering them out of the truck. She was joined by a man Toko had not seen before. His tall built reminded her of the king next to her, though the man was significantly younger, had black hair instead and also had a wild ducktail beard. If the situation had allowed it, Toko would have allowed herself to think he was an attractive man, especially given as he was dressed nicely, ignoring the unnecessary brown gloves that did not match his outfit, a fine anthracite grey shirt and white dress pants.

"Slavomír?" Ladislav asked.

"Yes, your majesty. Well, majesty for the time being," the man responded, smiling condescendingly. The sound of his voice filled Toko with disgust.

"Alright, you," he said, pointing at the woman, "lead our "guests" in. I'll just take care of the driver."

"Walk!" she shouted in her broken Japanese, bringing her weapon up. Toko and Ladislav did not object and made their way towards a small cottage. Their guard kept a close eye on them and was in a position to immediately shoot them if they tried anything funny. Therefore, Toko did not even bother thinking about escape and instead concerned herself with other matters.

"Who is that?" she whispered sharply.

"Slavomír Nevermind, Marquess of Channing and my cousin once removed. I have no idea what he's doing here," he explained in a concerned voice. Suddenly, the noise of two gunshots rang through the air.

"Though this doesn't sound promising," he added.

"Oh, r-really?" Toko's bitter reply did not take long.

"Shut up!" the soldier behind them shouted. They entered the cottage, where two chairs were prepared for them. A gesture indicated to them that they were supposed to sit down on them, which they did. Toko took some time to look around the room. It was mostly devoid of furniture except the chairs. A car battery and some wires lay around in the corner of the room, but Toko paid them no mind.

The Marquess of Channing entered the room, taking off his gloves and tossing them into a corner.

"Well, I do not know how you survived that explosion," he said, "but I do know that that is inconvenient."

"Well, sorry for not dying," Ladislav responded to Toko's surprise. He did not seem like a man that was likely to use sarcasm.

"Don't worry, we will fix that later," his relative calmly noted, "but for now we need something from you."

As he said that, he pointed at Toko. Meanwhile, the young woman that had led them into the cottage brought Slavomír a tape recorder that Toko estimated to be at least twenty years old. It was the same model as the one she accidentally broke when she was four years old. Memories of the sheer hunger she had during the ten days her parents denied her food for that accident flashed her mind, but she reminded herself that now was not the time for traumatic memories, especially since she was in the process of making new ones.

"Here's what is going to happen," he explained, "You, young lady, will give us a confession that you are a part of Future Foundation."

Toko noted mentally that if she did, Future Foundation would just disavow any knowledge of her or her actions. "I g-guess he doesn't know about the Future Foundation Special Operations br-branch," she thought whilst hoping she or the noble next to her would not give anything away by accident.

"Then you will explain that your organization killed the king because he was in the way of your plans to take control of our country," Slavomír continued, "Then you can go, I will take care of my dear cousin over there and my mother will become Queen Barbora of Novoselic and our country will take back our pride from our "neighbours"."

King Ladislav shouted something in a foreign language at his cousin who in turn responded aggressively. Toko was somewhat grateful that she did not understand what they were talking about as it would only complicate her current situation which was untenable as it is. She could under no circumstances give the confession he asked for: she was well aware that he would kill her once she had done what he asked. She could not afford to die here, not until she was certain the Naegis were safe. She was not going to let the only people who tolerated her down.

"Anyway, give us that confession and you are free to go," her thoughts were interrupted by their captor.

"A-a-as if," Toko stuttered, "What are you g-gonna do if I d-don't?"

In response to that question, she was struck in the face by a heavy punch. Her vision got blurry as a fist rocked her skull. A number of punches followed, each hitting harder than the one before. Once the assault stopped, Toko felt the warm feeling of blood on her skin and in her mouth whilst her pain receptors worked overtime. Only the generous dose of adrenaline her brain released prevented her from fainting. She wondered again what she did to deserve this treatment. Was she such a horrible person? Was she wrong for wanting to help a friend she did not deserve to have anyway? This thought, usually part of her negative self-hate feedback loop, actually proved productive: thinking of Komaru helped her regain her focus despite the searing pain.

"That's what will happen if you don't cooperate," he explained, his tone having shifted to a tone that could only be described as psychopathic, "If mere physical beatings do not suffice, I will use the car battery to apply electric shocks to your body and cause severe burns and if, against all odds and against your better wisdom, you will still not cooperate, I have further methods of getting what I want. You will make that confession and you can save yourself a lot of pain if you do it quickly."

Toko did not really listen to the final part of that threat as her mind had come up with a plan to get out of this situation. If you want to call it a plan. Her idea was to let Genocide Jack take over. The battery should have enough charge to replace her taser that unfortunately was nowhere to be found. The hard challenge was to endure enough beatings to get to the point where he would use electricity to torture her. Focusing her mind on Komaru, Byakuka and Makoto, people she does not want to let down, she mustered all the spite she had to offer and resisted any urge to cower and make herself as unnoticeable as possible.

"Are you going to cooperate now?"

Toko's answer merely consisted on spitting blood on the Marquess's white pants defiantly. This did not make him a very happy noble. Angrily, he kicked Toko in the chest, causing her to fall backwards as the force pushed the chair over. A painful landing ensued and she immediately regretted her bravado and could no longer fight back the tears she had been holding in for the last hour. As she started to cry, Slavomír retrieved the battery. Toko was not in any state to celebrate that her plan had worked, as he immediately connected two electrodes to her skin, causing her to feel a burning pain before everything turned black.

A different brain opened the same pair of eyes and Genocide Jack realized her position and took in the pain from the electric shock as well as the, to her, erotic feeling of blood on her skin. It did not take long to realize what her other self had gotten her into, even if she had no idea about the details. The vitriol she felt towards the man he saw over her and whom she felt punch her in the face made the situation all clear to her.

"Fuck yeah! It's self-defense now!" she shouted, excited at the implication of that. This man abusing her had no idea just how much fun she was going to have.


	10. Is There a Mission For Us?

Makoto Naegi jolted up. All he remembered was a flash. Where was he? A quick look around made it clear that he was no longer in the cafe he and Toko had been at and had met the king of Novoselic. In fact, a quick look around made it seem to him like he was in a cell. As it turned out, he actually was in a cell. Iron bars prevented any exit from the room that consisted of a steel pallet and a toilet that was more public than Makoto cared for. Looking outside, he saw a guard reading a sports magazine. He would certainly be able to explain the situation to him.

"Excuse me, sir," Makoto began, causing the guard to nearly fall from his chair in surprise. He put the magazine to the side and approached Makoto.

"I don't really understand where I am right now," Makoto explained, "can you help me?"

The guard seemingly understood only half of what Makoto said to him, he held his hands up in a defensive position.

"No understand. You wait," he said in extremely broken Japanese before going to the other side of the room and grabbing the phone mounted to the wall. He made a quick call in the common language Makoto still does not understand a single word of. Afterwards, he returned to the chairman of Hope Peak's Academy.

"Sit and wait," the guard told him in a voice Makoto guessed was trying to be comforting, but was not really succeeding in being that. Makoto sat down on the uncomfortable bed he had been resting on. He began trying to put together the sequence of events leading him to this point. They were in this cafe talking about his parents before the cake was served. When Genocide Jack pulled off the cloche, everything turned black. Did someone rig it to explode or release some narcotic agent. That must be the only answer. Makoto assumes that a narcotic agent would not have worked as quickly, leaving only the explosion as the only answer. Someone must have shielded him from the explosion. Toko and Ladislav both are not around, so they must have done it. Makoto could only hope they were not hurt, but he had to be realistic.

His train of thought was halted when he saw a familiar face enter his cell. Jonas Lithium, who had received them when they arrived in Novoselic, was there. Makoto felt relief at the presence of someone familiar. Jonas motioned him to get up, which Makoto did.

"Follow me, please," Jonas said. Both of them left the cell and made their way out a cell block that, to Makoto, did not seem particularly capable of holding prisoners for long. They made their way into an office that had seen better days. Papers lying around all over the place, dust covering the two shelves. The intelligence agent removed a pile of papers from the chair and gestured Makoto to sit down.

"Alright, I think you need an update on the situation," he said after Makoto has sat down, "We found you in Café Day, however, your companion and his majesty were missing. As of now, we do not know where they are."

Makoto was worried, both Agent Democracy and Genocide Jack were missing. His concern almost made him leap up, but he caught himself, realizing he was better served just listening for now.

"We have reason to assume that both of them are still alive," Jonas explained, seemingly noticing Makoto's unease, "given as we did not find any remains. In fact, we found nobody except you. No staff, no bodyguards, nothing."

This confused Makoto quite a bit: if he was knocked out by an explosion he must have avoided the worst part of, then why were there no bodies? His experience with Mukuro Ikusaba's corpse taught him that even explosions do not completely turn bodies into dust, especially if you can survive them.

"Whoever is responsible for this did a pretty awful job," Jonas continued, "because they wanted us to believe that you are responsible for King Ladislav's disappearance or presumed death, but nobody in their right mind could believe that."

Awful cover-up jobs are the result of plans falling apart, Makoto knew that. One thing changes to produce something that the planner did not foresee. His choice to sacrifice himself in order to save Kyoko from a nefarious plot to kill her caused the downfall of Junko Enoshima. What caused this plan to fail? Had there been a plan to begin with? Makoto did not need to think about that for too long and quickly broke the silence that had engulfed the office.

"Toko and the king are still alive. They did not expect that to happen," Makoto said, "and had to improvise. They took the two and anybody else there and left me to make you think they were responsible."

Jonas raised his eyebrow, seemingly impressed at the deduction.

"Well, our information certainly was right, you are smart," he praised. Makoto scratched the back of his head at this unexpected compliment.

"That's why we have you here," Jonas continued, "Your deductive skills and your knowledge of forces hostile to Future Foundation could prove useful in solving this case."

Makoto agreed happily as the door opened. A young woman opened the door and was a bit surprised to see Makoto. She gave him a nervous nod as a greeting and handed a notebook and a piece of paper to Jonas before slipping out the door again. The agent immediately placed both things on the table, pushing away a few folders to make room.

"Here's a notebook with internet connection. You can access the internet through our guest WLAN. The password is on the paper," Jonas explained. He wanted to continue, but the ringing of a mobile phone interrupted it. Jonas pulled out an old mobile phone and answered the call. Makoto watched him during what was a rather one-sided conversation. His body language seemed unconcerned, almost as if he was not bothered by the head of government having disappeared for unexplained reasons. Makoto could not help to draw a comparison to Kyoko Kirigiri, who also never was rattled by the crime she investigated. The phone conversation concluded after a couple of minutes. Jonas drove his hand through his hair before facing Makoto.

"Alright, my men have investigated the neighborhood. The witnesses reported an explosion, obviously, and otherwise generally had little to say," he explained, "but a few reported something more useful. They heard gunfire and saw people coming out of the building and loading something into a post truck. Unfortunately, they could not tell what they loaded or where the truck went. The logical conclusion is that they were loading were the people missing from the cafe into the truck."

Makoto did not disagree with that logic. He concluded that wherever that truck was was where Ladislav and Genocide Jack were; he just hoped they were both still alive so they could find them.

"I'll leave you be," Jonas said in a friendly tone, "If you have any questions, I usually am in the office at the end of the floor. Come by if you have any questions or have figured something out."

With those words, he departed, leaving Makoto to his work. With everything else in Novoselic being either outdated or haphazardly put back together after the war, seeing a state-of-the-art notebook was a welcome sight. Quickly, he activated the operating system and logged into the network. Quickly, he connected to the Future Foundation servers and opened a secure communication channel. Makoto prayed that anyone at Hope's Peak was going to respond. The clock in the corner said 14:57, but that was obviously the local time.

Luck was on the side of the Ultimate Lucky Student once more as the rather tired looking Byakuya Togami was on the other side of the call.

"Hello, Byakuya, I'm glad to see you."

"Well, that is a surprise," Byakuya admitted, "you can count yourself lucky I was still busy working. It is 10 o'clock here. How is your situation."

"A bit … complicated," Makoto said, nervously, "I was able to confirm that Agent Democracy was not compromised by despair. Unfortunately, not only were we not able to find Komaru, but now the king and Jack have gone missing."

"That is unfortunate," Byakuya said, sounding surprisingly genuine given his usual distaste for Toko's evil persona outranked even that for Toko's normal self, "please explain what happened."

Makoto gave a brief summary of the events that have led him to the current situation, trying to keep it as short as possible out of respect for the late hour in Japan. Byakuya occasionally nodded, trying to make sense of Makoto's story. After the headmaster of Hope's Peak concluded his narrative, the head of the Togami dynasty thought about the situation a bit.

"So you are in the offices of the intelligence agency?" he asked. Makoto confirmed this with a quick nod.

"Be careful," Byakuya directly told him, "They are too trusting of a foreigner they have never seen before."

Makoto was about to voice an objection, but Togami looked at him in a way that told him that he knew what he was about to say and was in no mood to hear it.

"I will," he promised.

"For now, you should look into the royal family. Regicide usually is the preferred approach by inheritors lacking patience."

Togami's own experiences that made him into the premier inheritor of his family's legacy informed that assumption, but it seemed like the obvious approach. Makoto downloaded a couple of files dealing with the history of Novoselic and a spreadsheet summarizing the order of succession to the Kingdom of Novoselic as far as Future Foundation intelligence was concerned. He made a quick note to ask someone to compare that list to local knowledge.

"Do your research and see if you can find anything. Make sure you can keep this line available to you for as long as possible. I will see whether I can get a man inside the country, but for obvious reasons they would need to enter illegally and that's going to take some time."

After Byakuya's understated comment, they disconnected and Makoto opened the file on Novoselic's history. Thankfully, his work as headmaster had made him more tolerant towards studying; only a few years ago he would probably have fallen asleep. Even though the text was dry, Novoselic was quite an interesting case study.

Unlike pretty much everywhere else on the planet, there have never existed any democratic movements in this country. The absolute monarchy that was founded around 650 years ago never found itself facing major opposition, save for a minor Troykist movement after the end of World War I. As the royal families always saw it as part of their royal identity to listen to the wisest men on their subjects, it allowed for military victories against foes like the Golden Horde and the Austrian-Hungarian empire in the aforementioned world war and economic successes such as early industrialization and a decisive move towards a knowledge-based economy under the parents of Sonia and Ladislav Nevermind. These and other noteworthy achievements resulted in the idea of the nobility as a benevolent protector of the masses that died out in other parts of the world.

Makoto certainly agreed that this perception was quite common in the kingdom. Their capture of Sonia Nevermind resulted in her losing her office, a decision that proved quite unpopular in many circles even though she dragged her people into an omnicidal war of aggression. Some even argue that the unconditional surrender by King Ladoslav IX was a betrayal of the "rightful" Queen and the nation, especially given as it involved severe restrictions for a country that prided itself on its independence.

Perhaps someone who believed the propaganda of the war times wanted to bring Sonia back on the throne. Even though to the public she was still part of the "unconquered" Remnants of Despair, she never formally resigned from her office and was instead ruled unfit to lead by the courts. Makoto entertained the notion of having her do that, but figured that doing so would be too unpractical right now.

For now, Makoto had no option outside of getting someone to work through the list of successors with the agency. Not a particularly glorious task, but someone had to do it. It did not take long to establish a proper order of succession. Makoto couldn't help but be amused that technically, the other agent accompanying Jonas is also on that list in seventeenth place. Now for the real fun part: getting help in sorting out who died or went missing in the war and its aftermath.


End file.
